This S.O.B. System - Chapter 46

Asher woke up coughing blood. He was still in his armor. Despite the lizard’s attack, it was still unmarred. His back against a black cliff face, his head swam lazily. A quick look at his health bar he knew he had about died again. No danger apparent, he willed a minor potion to him. Drinking the hot liquid down it had a spicy taste. His health was raised by 22 to 26/100 (9). The number in parenthesis had been 10 before. He wondered if that meant he had gone to -1 health and he had been sleeping long enough to gain 4HP. 

A problem for another time he stood up. Bringing the quest up he saw that they had 5 days and 20 hours. He had been out for about 12 hours. The scenery around him was still bleak, and he had no sense of direction. If he took their entrance into the boss canyon as South, then he guessed he was now to the West of where they were, maybe Southwest. 

Pulling out some water and food from his ring he began to fill his empty belly. Asleep so long he had some major calories to catch up on. By the time he felt well enough to go on he was at 35/100 health. With that he headed in the direction he guessed was East. 

Rocks tumbled around him as he crested a rock formation. No wind in the air, dark clouds overhead, it resembled what his father spouted was hell. But Asher would survive. This was nothing. With a grunt he hefted his blade over his shoulder and began to move. 

That was the point that he fell through the rocks at his feet. Dropping a good 10 feet through the air he was put upon by a red glowing worm. It was 5’ long and floated in the air. The serpent-like face bit at him, making him step back and notice another worm behind him. Attacked on both fronts Ash pulled out a dagger.

Sword facing one, dagger facing the other he waited for whichever attacked first. Without a signal they both lunged. One went high and the other low. Wrapping around his legs, the other latched onto his dagger arm. As the worms constricted around him he felt something pulled out of his body. The 2 worms began to glow a bright red as they sucked the life out of him. Panicked, Asher chopped down on the one at his legs. His blade met resistance against hard scales. With a grunt he raised his arm again and sliced down once more. His blade went into the red scales nearly cutting it in half. 

Dropping his long sword he grabbed the worm on his arm. It began to squeal as he yanked it off. His fingers dug into its scales as he whipped it into the stone wall. Rocks burst and fell with it’s passing. The scales were so tough, but he was tougher. He began to raise and lower it like an actual whip. Soon the screeches stopped and as he let his arm fall. The beast laid dead on the ground. 

Breathing in deep gulps of air he brought up his status screen. His HP was fine at 28/100. But scanning it he saw the problem. His mana was at 32/75. He knew what these things were, they were Mana Worms. A classic game trope they sucked mana from people. Since most every class used Mana in some way or another they were usually a pain in the ass. Asher never really used Mana all that much. Since his skills were mostly Max Level, there were only a few that actually used it. 

The interesting part was that now his Experience was at 18,828/35.000. That meant that each of these gave him 500 experience. A smile came to his face as he noticed the now familiar red glow in the tunnel ahead. “Time to grind some mobs,” he said as he stepped forward. 

—-

Asher came out of the cave in a huff. There had only been another 50 or so Mana Worms in the tunnels. In groups of 2 they had been easy to handle once he got the hang of it. It was actually good training to try to hit the quick floating bodies. When they latched onto him he would bisect them with a strong slice. He did notice that when his mana got too low, they weren’t interested. So a simple mana potion fixed that problem. He had a couple, but never had a use for them. 

He guessed they ranged from level 15-18 and gave him between 450-600 experience. Now he was level 17, and that brought a new skill. 

Asher had heard Tiffany mention this a few times, but she had raised it from level 1. She used it to control her breast size and some other sex related functions, but he didn’t expect to get it as well. His pheromones, libido, and dick control still worked the same, so he would have to experiment later to see what could be done with it. 

His Brawling had also raised a level, but no others. Now that he was outside of the cave he decided to take a real break. Willing out his tent he set it up next to the entrance. Maybe he would get lucky and more would come out. Once he had a fire started he pulled out his black iron pan and began to cook a steak. The Black Ice Ring he wore had a Time Freeze enchant on it, so the steak was as cool as it had been when he originally bought it. 

Pulling out a chair and his phone he began to look through videos and pictures on the digital device. Laughing at pictures of he, Tiff and Zora, they really did have a good time on their cruise. There was one of them rock climbing. Tiffany had pretended to fall, but was using Flight. It scared the instructor half to death. 

Zora had required him to take hundreds of pictures with her and the dolphins. Her smile was so wide it brought a tear to his eye. Also there was another of her screaming as she went down the zipline. At this point he was starting to regret going into the dungeon. Putting the phone back away he put his game face on. He was Asher Whitmore, and not Quinten Hardly for once. It felt nice to not be so serious all the time in the Roleplay, but also he wondered if he was being soft. 

Most everything he had killed had been as Quinten. Yet as he killed these monsters Ash didn’t feel anything either. Was this always a part of him, or was this a development of the System? Were his Roleplays leaking over into his normal personality? Asher really didn’t know. The only thing he was sure of was growing stronger. He and his girls had been put through a lot. They all needed to be stronger. He wouldn’t allow any more red quests to make him scared to fight. 

The raid group had been eye opening. Joon was level 20, the first one he had met. How high could the levels go? If they could pull 40 people together what could he do back home? Joon had confided that being over level 15 was rare in the city. Since dungeons appeared sporadically based off of surface area of the land, since they were in a smaller area, they had less dungeons to level in. 

Asher lived in the U.S. A giant country in comparison to Korea, and yet the highest level he met was there. He really needed to try to focus on becoming the strongest. He wouldn’t let any more Supermen scare him. He had to focus. His steak burning he cursed as he pulled it off of the fire. Asher decided to take a couple hours to rest and get to full health, then he would go back to grinding. 

—-

The first new monster Asher came across had to be a mankiller. With a horned lion’s head, bat like wings, and a snake for a tail, the Manticore looked menacing. At least he thought they were called Manticores. The size of an actual lion, it growled deeply in front of him. The hiss of the tail raised itself high. 

With muscles bunching the manticore leapt at him. Asher raised his shield and blade as one. The tip of the blade sunk into its chest but it turned at the last second, not letting the blade get very far in. As it turned to back up, the snake head attacked. Instincts blaring, he raised his shield again. The thunk of the head smacking the shield was very enjoyable to hear. 

It roared again as it dove back at him. Asher swept the leg with his blade cutting a paw off. The beast stumbled into him as Asher drove the sword into its mouth. It groaned then dropped to the ground. The snake was still alive, it began attacking him without a care. Asher, with superhuman speed, caught the neck and cut it off. Severing the tail from the body he threw it to the side. He heard another roar in the distance then another. 

With a gulp he prepared for another fight. 

—-

Asher fell into another hole as he ran from a group of 3 Manticores. He scrambled to get out of the view of the hole above as he gasped for breath. They had simply kept coming. He had killed 10 by the time he was overrun. They had been very good experience, netting him 1,000 points each. He had to change strategies for now. It had been almost a full day since he had last rested and he needed a break. He didn’t hear any more roars from above, so he hoped that he lost them. 

A skittering across rock caught his attention. There was a giant Hercules-like beetle in front of him. With a purple carapace it was about 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. It turned to him, regarding him for a second, then charged. Asher only had time to raise his boot. The beast was stronger than he imagined as it pushed his body up the curved rock wall. 

Asher threw himself out of the way. Sword in hand, he dodge rolled until he was standing. The Hercules beetle turned to him slowly so he lunged. Sword overhead he brought it down on the insect practically squashing it. It let out a squelch as its insides shot out to cover the outsides. 

“Ew,” he said, stepping back. He had received 100 Experience from the simple fight. Catching his breath he noticed a familiar red glow coming from one end of the cave. His Mana Worms were back. Then he heard more skittering of insects from the other side of the cave. Unsure where to start, his stomach growling he willed a coin into his hand. It flipped in the air with the flick of his thumb, he would let it decide his path. 

—-

Asher cut off the tail of another manticore. He had been fighting almost nonstop for 4 days now. After the beetle and worm cave he had been found by more manticores. When they got too much to take he ran for 10 hours straight from them. Ash didn’t know he could run that long. He had killed them one by one until he stumbled onto another mound of beetles. They had attacked him relentlessly until every single one was dead on his blade. 

Ash thought the Trial of Champions was hard. That was only a few hours. A lot of foes, yes, but he had been fighting for days now. He did not know he had it in him. It was a staggering amount of foes. Some were quick and smart. It took him a half hour to wear them down enough to get a finishing blow. After the fight he would have a few minutes of food and rest until something else stumbled on him. 

The group of 3 manticores dead around him, he sighed heavily and sat down. Munching on some jerky, cheese, and crackers he chugged water between gulps of food and air. Every muscle hurt as they shook from exhaustion. 

Bringing up his status screen he noticed he had leveled somewhere during all the fighting. Twice. He was now level 19 and had a new skill. He was about to move his stat points as he heard it. His head ducking involuntarily he was jumpy from all the fighting. 

This sound was different than what he had become used to, it was the echo of voices. His heart thumping he stowed his gear and began walking out of the clearing into another small canyon like extension. He started to smell smoke at that point. Voices were no longer just distant echoes, they were straight ahead. His legs moved to run, but they hurt too much so he walked quickly in the direction. 

When he came to another clearing he noticed the black dungeon portal ahead. Tents and campfires littered the area. Willing his blade away a great weight left his shoulders as he stumbled forward. People were soon getting up from chairs as they noticed him. They spoke in Korean to him. He was covered in the black dry soil, blood crusted from a dozen cuts on his body. His shirt and pants were in tatters, but he had made it. As he stumbled his way through the group of small abodes she stepped out of the giant field tent. 

Her black hair draped over a shirt that read ‘Pink’, the tan skin glowing in the red light. Ash simply smiled at her. Then Joon’s face contorted into a sobbing mess. Crying out his name she bolted for him. Pushing past people around her she dove at him into his chest. 

“I thought you were dead,” she sobbed from his metal chestplate. 

“Miss me, Joony?” He asked, shocked by her reaction. Asher knew something was wrong with this girl. There was something she wasn’t telling him. For now he was too exhausted to care as his legs gave out. They dropped to the ground together.  

Asher woke up coughing blood. He was still in his armor. Despite the lizard's attack, it was still unmarred. His back against a black cliff face, his head swam lazily. A quick look at his health bar he knew he had about died again. No danger apparent, he willed a minor potion to him. Drinking the hot liquid down it had a spicy taste. His health was raised by 22 to 26/100 9. The number in parenthesis had been 10 before. He wondered if that meant he had gone to -1 health and he had been sleeping long enough to gain 4HP. A problem for another time he stood up. Bringing the quest up he saw that they had 5 days and 20 hours. He had been out for about 12 hours. The scenery around him was still bleak, and he had no sense of direction. If he took their entrance into the boss canyon as South, then he guessed he was now to the West of where they were, maybe Southwest. Pulling out some water and food from his ring he began to fill his empty belly. Asleep so long he had some major calories to catch up on. By the time he felt well enough to go on he was at 35/100 health. With that he headed in the direction he guessed was East. Rocks tumbled around him as he crested a rock formation. No wind in the air, dark clouds overhead, it resembled what his father spouted was hell. But Asher would survive. This was nothing. With a grunt he hefted his blade over his shoulder and began to move. That was the point that he fell through the rocks at his feet. Dropping a good 10 feet through the air he was put upon by a red glowing worm. It was 5' long and floated in the air. The serpent-like face bit at him, making him step back and notice another worm behind him. Attacked on both fronts Ash pulled out a dagger. Sword facing one, dagger facing the other he waited for whichever attacked first. Without a signal they both lunged. One went high and the other low. Wrapping around his legs, the other latched onto his dagger arm. As the worms constricted around him he felt something pulled out of his body. The 2 worms began to glow a bright red as they sucked the life out of him. Panicked, Asher chopped down on the one at his legs. His blade met resistance against hard scales. With a grunt he raised his arm again and sliced down once more. His blade went into the red scales nearly cutting it in half. Dropping his long sword he grabbed the worm on his arm. It began to squeal as he yanked it off. His fingers dug into its scales as he whipped it into the stone wall. Rocks burst and fell with it's passing. The scales were so tough, but he was tougher. He began to raise and lower it like an actual whip. Soon the screeches stopped and as he let his arm fall. The beast laid dead on the ground. Breathing in deep gulps of air he brought up his status screen. His HP was fine at 28/100. But scanning it he saw the problem. His mana was at 32/75. He knew what these things were, they were Mana Worms. A classic game trope they sucked mana from people. Since most every class used Mana in some way or another they were usually a pain in the ass. Asher never really used Mana all that much. Since his skills were mostly Max Level, there were only a few that actually used it. The interesting part was that now his Experience was at 18,828/35.000. That meant that each of these gave him 500 experience. A smile came to his face as he noticed the now familiar red glow in the tunnel ahead. Time to grind some mobs, he said as he stepped forward. - Asher came out of the cave in a huff. There had only been another 50 or so Mana Worms in the tunnels. In groups of 2 they had been easy to handle once he got the hang of it. It was actually good training to try to hit the quick floating bodies. When they latched onto him he would bisect them with a strong slice. He did notice that when his mana got too low, they weren't interested. So a simple mana potion fixed that problem. He had a couple, but never had a use for them. He guessed they ranged from level 15-18 and gave him between 450-600 experience. Now he was level 17, and that brought a new skill. FULL BODY CONTROL LVL MAX Your Genitalia Control, Libido Control, Pheromone Release, and Taste Control have evolved into Full Body Control. Asher had heard Tiffany mention this a few times, but she had raised it from level 1. She used it to control her breast size and some other sex related functions, but he didn't expect to get it as well. His pheromones, libido, and dick control still worked the same, so he would have to experiment later to see what could be done with it. Name: Asher Whitmore Skills: Alias: Quinten Hardly Acting LVL MAX System: PORN STAR STD Immunity LVL MAX Level: 17 Roleplaying LVL MAX Experience 11,771/40,000 3 Prop Manifestation LVL MAX Title: Lawful Good Relationship Screen LVL 7 Guild: Community Gardening LVL 4 Syscos: 2,015 Ahegao LVL 6 Slovene Language LVL 2 HP: 54 /105 9 Survival LVL 11 MP: 8 /75 Tracking LVL 8 Brawling LVL 8 Stats: 0 Policing LVL 8 Strength: 35 Economics LVL 10 Dexterity: 25 Battleshout LVL 7 Endurance: 35 Intimidation LVL 7 Agility: 25 Powerstrike LVL 5 Wisdom: 25 Justice LVL 2 Intelligence: 25 Regal Presence LVL 7 Luck: 23 Eye for Art LVL 5 Charm: 23 Battle Instincts LVL 12 Weapon Throw LVL 9 Custom Stats: Gun Fighting LVL 9 Dick Length 9 Inches Pianist LVL 14 Dick Diameter 2 Inches Sketching LVL 8 Fertility Off Full Body Control LVL MAX Pheromones 20 Libido 10 His Brawling had also raised a level, but no others. Now that he was outside of the cave he decided to take a real break. Willing out his tent he set it up next to the entrance. Maybe he would get lucky and more would come out. Once he had a fire started he pulled out his black iron pan and began to cook a steak. The Black Ice Ring he wore had a Time Freeze enchant on it, so the steak was as cool as it had been when he originally bought it. Pulling out a chair and his phone he began to look through videos and pictures on the digital device. Laughing at pictures of he, Tiff and Zora, they really did have a good time on their cruise. There was one of them rock climbing. Tiffany had pretended to fall, but was using Flight. It scared the instructor half to death. Zora had required him to take hundreds of pictures with her and the dolphins. Her smile was so wide it brought a tear to his eye. Also there was another of her screaming as she went down the zipline. At this point he was starting to regret going into the dungeon. Putting the phone back away he put his game face on. He was Asher Whitmore, and not Quinten Hardly for once. It felt nice to not be so serious all the time in the Roleplay, but also he wondered if he was being soft. Most everything he had killed had been as Quinten. Yet as he killed these monsters Ash didn't feel anything either. Was this always a part of him, or was this a development of the System? Were his Roleplays leaking over into his normal personality? Asher really didn't know. The only thing he was sure of was growing stronger. He and his girls had been put through a lot. They all needed to be stronger. He wouldn't allow any more red quests to make him scared to fight. The raid group had been eye opening. Joon was level 20, the first one he had met. How high could the levels go? If they could pull 40 people together what could he do back home? Joon had confided that being over level 15 was rare in the city. Since dungeons appeared sporadically based off of surface area of the land, since they were in a smaller area, they had less dungeons to level in. Asher lived in the U.S. A giant country in comparison to Korea, and yet the highest level he met was there. He really needed to try to focus on becoming the strongest. He wouldn't let any more Supermen scare him. He had to focus. His steak burning he cursed as he pulled it off of the fire. Asher decided to take a couple hours to rest and get to full health, then he would go back to grinding. - The first new monster Asher came across had to be a mankiller. With a horned lion's head, bat like wings, and a snake for a tail, the Manticore looked menacing. At least he thought they were called Manticores. The size of an actual lion, it growled deeply in front of him. The hiss of the tail raised itself high. With muscles bunching the manticore leapt at him. Asher raised his shield and blade as one. The tip of the blade sunk into its chest but it turned at the last second, not letting the blade get very far in. As it turned to back up, the snake head attacked. Instincts blaring, he raised his shield again. The thunk of the head smacking the shield was very enjoyable to hear. It roared again as it dove back at him. Asher swept the leg with his blade cutting a paw off. The beast stumbled into him as Asher drove the sword into its mouth. It groaned then dropped to the ground. The snake was still alive, it began attacking him without a care. Asher, with superhuman speed, caught the neck and cut it off. Severing the tail from the body he threw it to the side. He heard another roar in the distance then another. With a gulp he prepared for another fight. - Asher fell into another hole as he ran from a group of 3 Manticores. He scrambled to get out of the view of the hole above as he gasped for breath. They had simply kept coming. He had killed 10 by the time he was overrun. They had been very good experience, netting him 1,000 points each. He had to change strategies for now. It had been almost a full day since he had last rested and he needed a break. He didn't hear any more roars from above, so he hoped that he lost them. A skittering across rock caught his attention. There was a giant Hercules-like beetle in front of him. With a purple carapace it was about 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. It turned to him, regarding him for a second, then charged. Asher only had time to raise his boot. The beast was stronger than he imagined as it pushed his body up the curved rock wall. Asher threw himself out of the way. Sword in hand, he dodge rolled until he was standing. The Hercules beetle turned to him slowly so he lunged. Sword overhead he brought it down on the insect practically squashing it. It let out a squelch as its insides shot out to cover the outsides. Ew, he said, stepping back. He had received 100 Experience from the simple fight. Catching his breath he noticed a familiar red glow coming from one end of the cave. His Mana Worms were back. Then he heard more skittering of insects from the other side of the cave. Unsure where to start, his stomach growling he willed a coin into his hand. It flipped in the air with the flick of his thumb, he would let it decide his path. - Asher cut off the tail of another manticore. He had been fighting almost nonstop for 4 days now. After the beetle and worm cave he had been found by more manticores. When they got too much to take he ran for 10 hours straight from them. Ash didn't know he could run that long. He had killed them one by one until he stumbled onto another mound of beetles. They had attacked him relentlessly until every single one was dead on his blade. Ash thought the Trial of Champions was hard. That was only a few hours. A lot of foes, yes, but he had been fighting for days now. He did not know he had it in him. It was a staggering amount of foes. Some were quick and smart. It took him a half hour to wear them down enough to get a finishing blow. After the fight he would have a few minutes of food and rest until something else stumbled on him. The group of 3 manticores dead around him, he sighed heavily and sat down. Munching on some jerky, cheese, and crackers he chugged water between gulps of food and air. Every muscle hurt as they shook from exhaustion. Bringing up his status screen he noticed he had leveled somewhere during all the fighting. Twice. He was now level 19 and had a new skill. He was about to move his stat points as he heard it. His head ducking involuntarily he was jumpy from all the fighting. This sound was different than what he had become used to, it was the echo of voices. His heart thumping he stowed his gear and began walking out of the clearing into another small canyon like extension. He started to smell smoke at that point. Voices were no longer just distant echoes, they were straight ahead. His legs moved to run, but they hurt too much so he walked quickly in the direction. When he came to another clearing he noticed the black dungeon portal ahead. Tents and campfires littered the area. Willing his blade away a great weight left his shoulders as he stumbled forward. People were soon getting up from chairs as they noticed him. They spoke in Korean to him. He was covered in the black dry soil, blood crusted from a dozen cuts on his body. His shirt and pants were in tatters, but he had made it. As he stumbled his way through the group of small abodes she stepped out of the giant field tent. Her black hair draped over a shirt that read Pink', the tan skin glowing in the red light. Ash simply smiled at her. Then Joon's face contorted into a sobbing mess. Crying out his name she bolted for him. Pushing past people around her she dove at him into his chest. I thought you were dead, she sobbed from his metal chestplate. Miss me, Joony? He asked, shocked by her reaction. Asher knew something was wrong with this girl. There was something she wasn't telling him. For now he was too exhausted to care as his legs gave out. They dropped to the ground together.